RBI aiming for 1 Mn CBDC users by June-end, CBDC-UPI interoperability in pipeline
The Reserve Bank of India intends to scale the user base of the digital rupee to one million users by June-end, though no official date for CBDC's public rollout across the country has been revealed.
Highlights
- RBI is targeting to onboard one million users for its CBDCs by the month end
- It is also working to enable customers to make payments using CBDCs via UPI
The Reserve Bank of India is targeting one million users of CBDCs (central bank digital currency) by the end of this month, as per a recent announcement.
Though no official date has been revealed as to when CBDC would go live beyond the present pilot project, the central bank plans to adopt a careful and deliberate approach, mentioned T Rabi Sankar, RBI’s Deputy Governor.
CBDCs to be compatible with UPI
The central bank also intends to streamline CBDCs with the UPI, i.e., the Unified Payment Interface. Following the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announcements on Thursday, in the press conference, Sankar stated that the RBI is working to enable customers to make payments using CBDCs via UPI.
He further mentioned that the interoperability will be facilitated via UPI QR codes, as is the case with regular payments.
RBI to assess the impact of the CBDC pilot
The Deputy Governor also highlighted that RBI aka Mint Road’s strategy would involve evaluating the impact and studying the insights as the progress with its digital currency. Moreover, by targeting one million CBDC users by June-end, it intends to assess the adoption and usage patterns of CBDCs.
Results of the CBDC pilot satisfactory
It must be noted that the Mint Road came up with the concept of the digital rupee for the wholesale segment on 1 November 2022, followed by the first pilot for the retail digital rupee a month after, i.e., on 1 December.
Initially, the pilot was launched in four cities, namely, New Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Bhubaneswar, which later was expanded to other cities like Hyderabad, Indore, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Guwahati, Lucknow, and Patna, among others, within a closed user group.
Further, the initial pilot phase involved only the SBI, ICICI Bank, YES Bank, and IDFC First Bank. Gradually, other banks like the Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, HDFC Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank joined the league.
Here, it must be mentioned that reports suggest that both pilots have been satisfactory and in line with expectations.
